Month: February 2011

Effortless running

Ok, running wherein no particular effort was expended. Not quite the same thing…

I went to the gym on Tuesday and ran 3 miles on a treadmill in the middle of my usual cross training routine, then ran 5 miles last night around Crouch End, just before the Arsenal-Barcelona match. I felt quite stiff after the weekend during both – my ankles are worrying me a tiny bit.  Weirdly, on Tuesday it was the left ankle then on Wednesday the right. I really should stretch more (that will be my epitaph).

As I’m still at work at 6pm today, so there is no chance I’m going to make myself run tonight. This might be a wise move.  I have my work appraisal tomorrow and I know I’d spend each step worrying about all the things I could say, I shouldn’t say, they might say, they might not say, I might cry. That way madness, truly, lies.

Weekly round-up

Drizzle. Not a word I want to hear, unless it’s followed by ‘extra virgin olive oil’. This morning I ran 7 miles in grey, windy, drizzling rain. My legs were quaking on the hills like an old chair about to collapse and I ran 7 miles in the same time it took me to run 8 yesterday.

On the good side, I made it to 25 miles this week, 25.5 to be precise. I ran 15 of them this weekend, so it wasn’t exactly a well balanced week, but let’s gloss over that. Quantity, not quality, is what I’m aiming for at the moment. Quality begins in a fortnight. Mmm quality street. I need chocs.

Quantum Leap

It took me a while to work out what was wrong on my run this morning. Everything seemed strange from the start- I was too warm, even wearing just a t-shirt, and the people I passed were different, and there were so many of them. Instead of workmen and postmen there were families with dogs chatting in the middle of the path, getting in my way. Pavement cafes had sprung up overnight and a hungover man eating a packet of crisps walked into me .

If I had left the flat an hour earlier I would never have seen any of these people. The Early Me would have wished I’d worn a thicker top, and saved a minute not having to dodge buggies and dog leads. I keep thinking about what Early Me might have got done in that extra hour after finishing today’s 8 miles, but Late Me knows the answer is probably not much, and maybe Early Me wouldnt be thinking right now that spring is on its way.

It was a good run in the sunshine. You can’t ask much more of mid- February really.

Clenched teeth

When I’m going through a bad patch in a run, I tend to clench my teeth, rolling my lips up and baring them like a snarling dog. At this point, usually running uphill, I’m not thinking about the effect of my grimace on passing strangers, I’m only thinking about how many breaths it will take before I can get to the top. However after the painful bit has passed, maybe sometime the next day, I remember the faces of people looking at me in horror.

“Why would someone do that to themselves?”, they must be thinking, “What is she doing? It’s 6.54am! I know I’m outside but I have to walk my dog/ get to work/ steal this car”. I think to myself that they must be jealous, they must wish they had my motivation, they wish they could run all the way up this hill without stopping. They’re not. What they’re really thinking is, “thank god that’s not me!”.

This morning I ran 5.5 miles, in the rain. I grimaced twice, once for 3 miles and once for 2 miles, as my dad would say… It wasn’t the best.

The Weirdness of Strangers

This morning I ran 5 miles around Crouch End, starting out at 6.30am in the dark, as usual. I wasn’t really paying that much attention to my surroundings, and was just sleepily chugging along listening to a fairly dull podcast when I realised I could hear breathing. It took me a few steps to work out that it wasn’t my own.

I started and turned my head around quickly, to see a tall man running up close behind me, less than 2 metres away. He spoke and I pulled out a headphone from my ear, not hearing him. He was indignant “there’s no need to be scared”, he said.  “I didn’t hear you”, I said, trying to explain my surprise, and expected him to run ahead past me. He didn’t. He kept right there, just behind my left elbow. His pace was the same as mine. There were roadworks on the other path of the quiet street, so neither of us could cross the road. A few moments later he said, “Don’t worry, I’m your guardian angel”. I looked across at him and wondered about whether I should try to remember what he was wearing for any future police statement. Then I crossed the road. Then he crossed the road. Then I turned right. Then he turned right. I slowed down and let him go past. When he had, I stopped and tied my already tied shoelace. He carried on up the hill.

Why did he say that? Did he want me to feel less scared, or more scared?

Weekend (ok, weekly…) round-up

Oooooooops, forgot to write anything after Tuesday last week. Here’s a quick round-up, then normal service will resume.

After my poor mileage the week before, last week was a tiny bit better with 19 miles in total. After 3 in the gym on Monday night, I ran 6 on Wednesday morning, then got too busy at work and didn’t manage anything til Saturday morning, when I ran a good 10, even though I’d drank booze the night before. 

I love those long runs when you feel invincible – for me they only ever happen on a weekend morning, when I’ve eaten a good breakfast, drunk a pint of water, two cups of tea, and finished the  Guardian crossword. I’m not just a running geek..

5k trick

I went to the gym last night even though it was a Monday. Atonement for not running on Sunday.

I try to use the gym for cross-training as running on treadmills is boring and bad for my knees, so I tend to do 20 /20 /20 mins on cross-train/ run/ cycle. Then arm weights. I never do sit-ups – I used to feel guilty about this but now I don’t care. I do not own any crop-tops.

I’m going to try a new tack to prepare for the series of 10k races I’ll be running in the summer: starting slower, getting faster. Crazy! Last night on the treadmill I ran 5k in thirds starting at 13km/h, moving to 14km/h and finishing at 15km/h. It was tough, but I’m not in any kind of 10k shape, so I’m hoping I can get more comfortable, then up the speeds.

I’m aiming for a sub-42 minute 10k, which is only 75 seconds faster than my best. 75 seconds that is really a minute and a quarter of  heartbusting effort. 10ks are the worst kind of race, they’re high maintenance but they think they’re low-maintenance.  I wrote ‘thigh maintenance’ then, which I should probably have left in. I guess they’re good for something…

Weekend round-up

It’s late, but here’s my weekend round-up and summary of last week’s running.

I had a skirmish with some wine on Friday night so Saturday’s run started out painfully slowly, but after 15 minutes the fug cleared and I felt good, maybe even great. Ran 8 miles in an hour dead on, a 7.5 minute mile average.  Buoyed by this success I proceed to clock up a massive zero miles on Sunday. Oops.

At New Year I made a semi-serious promise to myself that my baseline would be 25 miles a week, when not training, and last week’s the first week I haven’t made it – only 17 miles.  Proper training for my next race (Ranelagh Half Marathon on 8 May) doesn’t start until the end of February so I’ve got 4 weeks to get serious.